The $2 billion dollar Square Kilometre Array Project (SKA), the concept of which began perplexing astronomers back in the early 1990s, is one of the most ambitious international science projects ever realised.

The Murchison Radio-Astronomy Observatory (MRO), located on Boolardy Station 300 kilometres north east of Geraldton, is the Australia-New Zealand core site for the SKA project.

It plays host to the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), a world-class telescope in its own right.

The ASKAP will provide astronomers with leading data from space that will help explain how the earth evolved, looking back some 13 billion years in time, answer fundamental questions of "dark matter" and "dark energy", and explore whether there is life on other planets.

The site is one of the few locations world-wide that is suitably remote for the sensitive technology with a 70 kilometre 'radio-quiet zone.'

The ASKAP, which began collecting data at the official opening ceremony last week, is made up of 36 antennas scattered across six kilometres, each 12 metres in diameter and 18 metres in height.

Operating in unison as one telescope, the ASKAP has already collected an unprecedented amount of data in fact the dishes alone will produce ten times the current global internet traffic.

ABC Mid West joined delegates, scientists and minsters for the official opening ceremony in the Murchison last week and boy were we impressed!